I thought eight years of camping would make preparing for full-time RV living pretty easy. We know our camper. We love exploring. We’ve survived rainy days and tight quarters—and we’re still married!
But my hubby Tom retires this spring, and we’re planning to sell our home and make a small travel trailer our full-time home. That’s a much bigger leap than packing up for another camping trip.
So I asked ChatGPT to make me a readiness quiz. Eleven questions. Three possible answers: Yes, Working on it, or Not yet.
How hard could that be?
Well, several questions caught me off guard. Apparently, being excited about the open road doesn’t mean I’ve finished my homework.
Take the Full-Time RV Living Readiness Quiz With Me
If you’re considering RV retirement or researching full-time RV living for beginners, answer these questions along with me. This is a personal planning exercise, and my answers show where we still have decisions to make.
1. Do We Both Want This Full-Time RV Lifestyle?
Eight years ago, Tom and I bought our Little Guy Max even though we had never camped before. That purchase could have gone either way!
Instead, our little camper changed our lives. We spent more time outdoors, explored new places, and discovered how much we enjoyed camping together.
Now, when we picture our next chapter, we’re both excited about traveling and spending more time doing the things we love. This isn’t just my dream with Tom coming along for the ride.
My answer: Yes.
2. Have We Tested Small-Camper Life Beyond Vacation Mode?
Our longest trip together in our camper has been one month. We’ve also taken a couple of two-week trips most years, so we’ve had practice with bad weather, limited space, and almost no privacy.
But full-time RV living in a small travel trailer brings a question we haven’t fully answered: What does an ordinary day look like?
On camping trips, we’re usually busy exploring. What happens when there’s no hiking plan, nowhere to be, and it’s raining again?
I’ve been self-employed for most of my life, so making my own schedule is familiar. Tom has gone to work every day for decades. Retirement will be an adjustment for him, wherever we live.
We’ve had a good trial run. Those ordinary Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and rainy Thursdays? Still to be determined.
My answer: Working on it.
3. Do We Know Which Camper We’ll Live In?
We’d like a slightly bigger camper with more room to hang out and larger tanks. After that question about privacy, you can probably guess why I keep looking!
But we haven’t found a trailer we’d choose over our Little Guy Max. For now, we’re continuing with our plans in the camper we already have, with our dog Thor along for the adventure.
Could that change before we hit the road? Absolutely.
Choosing a camper for full-time living means thinking about how the space will work for all three of us every day. We’re still sorting that out.
My answer: Working on it.
4. Have We Created an RV Living Budget Based on Retirement Income?
Here comes my big confession: at the time I took this quiz, I hadn’t sat down and crunched the numbers for our RV living budget.
I know what our camping trips cost. But taking a two-week trip and paying for everyday life on the road are two different things.
Our income will change when Tom retires. And if we buy a bigger camper, that changes more than our floor plan—it changes our budget, too.
Before we can know whether we can afford the RV retirement life we’re picturing, I need actual expenses lined up against actual income. Enthusiasm is wonderful, but it doesn’t pay for a campsite.
My answer: Not yet.
5. Could We Handle a Major Camper or Truck Repair?
A major repair wouldn’t automatically end our plans, but we don’t have an unlimited pile of repair money sitting around, either.
And a breakdown could cost more than the repair bill. If our camper needs to stay in the shop, where would we stay? If our truck breaks down, how would that affect our travel plans?
I think we could handle a setback. What I still need to figure out is how much to set aside for maintenance and repairs, and what our temporary living arrangements would be.
My answer: Working on it.
6. Do We Have a Healthcare and Prescription Plan for Traveling?
I’ve started looking into Medicare and supplement plans. Oh, the joys of retirement!
Right now, I have a rough idea of what we might do. And when I say rough, I mean very rough.
Healthcare could be one of our biggest monthly expenses, so I’m not comfortable guessing and calling that a plan. We need to understand our coverage, the costs, and how we’ll manage care and prescriptions while traveling.
For our own plans for RV living as seniors, this is a big piece of homework.
My answer: Working on it.
7. Have We Figured Out Domicile and Mail?
A year ago, I had no clue what domicile meant. Now I have opinions about it. That’s progress, right?
We’re researching which state we’ll establish as our legal home while traveling. Texas, South Dakota, and Florida are the three we’ve been exploring.
I’m also working through the questions that go with that decision: licenses, vehicle registration, insurance, voting, and receiving our mail.
I feel like I’m getting on top of this homework, but we still have questions to answer before making our final choice.
My answer: Working on it.
8. Can We Downsize Enough to Live Comfortably in Our Camper?
Honestly, letting go of belongings is one of the parts I’m looking forward to. Having less stuff sounds freeing.
Of course, ask me again when I’m holding something I’ve owned for 30 years and deciding whether it belongs in our 21-foot camper!
We currently pay for a storage shed for our camper when we’re not using it. My goal is to let that expense go, too. I don’t want the shed to become a place where we put every decision we couldn’t make.
Full-time living in a camper means making room for the life we want. I’m ready to start sorting.
My answer: Yes.
9. Do We Know How We’ll Find Places to Stay Throughout the Year?
I’ve lived in Minnesota or Wisconsin my whole life. If this works out, I may be heading into my last cold winter here—and I’m ready for that!
Finding places I want to visit? Easy. An actual travel calendar with places to stay and backup options? That still needs work.
I’m excited about this part and confident we can figure it out once the other pieces settle into place. But a list of beautiful destinations isn’t quite the same as a place to park our home.
My answer: Working on it.
10. Are We Ready to Sell Our Home?
We’ve lived in our home for 21 years. Leaving it behind is a big change, but Tom and I are both ready to sell.
At the time of this quiz, we were planning to meet with a realtor to discuss when to list for a spring sale.
The part we can’t control is when the house actually sells. If it doesn’t sell by the time we’re ready to leave, we’re still planning to move forward and hope for a summer sale. That could complicate our first few months on the road, but it doesn’t change what we want to do.
My answer: Yes.
11. What If Full-Time RV Living Isn’t Right for Us?
If we sell our house and discover six months later that camper life isn’t right for us, do we have a plan to change course?
Oh boy.
Apparently, our current backup plan is to look at each other and say, “Well, now what?”
I truly believe we’ll love this life. But I also know that believing something will work doesn’t guarantee it will.
I’m willing to take the leap, and I believe we would figure something out if we needed to change direction. I just don’t know what that something would be right now.
For this answer, I broke the quiz rules.
My answer: A flat-out no.
My Full-Time RV Living Quiz Results
Here’s my final report card:
| Answer | Number of questions |
|---|---|
| Yes | 3 |
| Working on it | 6 |
| Not yet | 1 |
| Flat-out no | 1 |
Not exactly the results I expected after eight years of camping!
I thought I was taking a quiz to find out if I was ready. Instead, I found my to-do list.
We’re excited, we both want this change, and we know we love camping. We also have important things to work through before our camper becomes our only home.
What’s Next? Our RV Retirement Budget
The subject that kept coming up was money: our monthly expenses, healthcare, repairs, and whether a different camper would fit our retirement income.
My next step is to build our RV living budget and answer the question I can’t keep putting off: Can we actually afford the full-time RV life we’re picturing?
This is all new to me, and I’m sure there are expenses and preparations I haven’t thought about yet.
If you’re already full-time RVers, what’s one thing you wish you’d figured out before hitting the road? If you’re still planning, which quiz question gave you the most homework? Leave a comment—I’d love to hear your experience!
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Something tells me it’s going to be a wild ride. I’d love to have you along!